OH YES THEY DID: Super Villain Koch Brothers Are Secret Investors in Mega-Successful ‘Wonder Woman’ Movie
Posted: August 9, 2017 Filed under: Comics, Entertainment | Tags: Back to the Future, Ernest Cline, Koch Brothers, Movies, Parzival, Ready Player One, San Diego Comic-Con International, San Diego Convention Center, Steven Spielberg, The Iron Giant, Virtual reality, Warner Bros, Wonder Woman 1 CommentSteven Mnuchin brought in the right-wing power brokers, as well as Bill Gates, to help fund such Hollywood projects as ‘Dunkirk’ and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming ‘Ready Player One.’
Tatiana Siegel reports: Though they might be the most reviled figures among Hollywood’s liberal crowd, the Koch brothers have been a silent investor in Warner Bros.‘ slate of movies for four years.
Sources say Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch — who are worth a combined $96.2 billion and wield enormous power in political circles as major backers of right-wing politicians — took a significant stake valued at tens of millions of dollars in RatPac-Dune Entertainment. Now-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin brought the brothers in as investors as part of a $450 million deal struck in 2013 — a move that was never disclosed because RatPac-Dune is a private company.
Though Mnuchin is no longer involved with the slate financing facility, having recently put his stake into a blind trust in order to avoid a conflict of interest, the Koch brothers continue to be stakeholders in such films as Wonder Woman, Dunkirk and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Ready Player One.
A RatPac spokesperson didn’t respond to a request. A spokesperson for Koch Industries says, “Charles Koch, David Koch and Koch Industries do not have any involvement with this investment.”
The brothers aren’t the only unlikely billionaires who have sunk money into the Warner Bros. deal. Sources say Mnuchin also brought in Bill Gates for an amount similar to the Koch brothers’. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Kelly File Interview: Charles Koch Opens Up About his ‘Classical Liberal’ Views
Posted: October 15, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Charles Koch, Democratic Party (United States), Fox News Channel, Hillary Clinton, Koch Brothers, media, Megyn Kelly, news, Republican Party presidential primaries, The Kelly File 1 Comment
On ‘The Kelly File,’ the billionaire addresses attacks from Democrats, motivations behind political involvement.
Pizza, Tolerance, GOP Dirty Tricks, The Koch Brothers, Left-Wing Paranoia, & Math
Posted: April 4, 2015 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics, Religion | Tags: #RFRA, Bigotry, FoFundMe, GOP, Koch Brothers, Left Wing, Math, news, Paranoia, Progressive, propaganda, Tolerance, Twitter 1 CommentLeland Yee, the Kochs, and the Press
Posted: March 29, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Baptist, Democratic, Gun control, Jonah Goldberg, Keystone Pipeline, Koch, Koch Brothers, Leland Yee, media 1 CommentJonah Goldberg writes: Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles. A lengthy FBI affidavit also describes Yee’s ties to a Chinese triad and his desire to help out Islamist militants.
In short, the story makes for what journalists call “good copy.”
And yet, so far no reporter has raised the possibility that Yee supported tighter restrictions on guns in order to keep gun prices high and his own services in demand. Economist Bruce Yandle popularized the idea of the “Bootleggers and Baptists” coalition. The apocryphal Baptists want to ban alcohol. Bootleggers don’t make much money when liquor can be bought legally at a grocery store or bar. So the bootleggers bankroll the Baptists’ effort to ban booze.
[Jonah’s latest book, The Tyranny of Cliches, is available at Amazon]
Now I sincerely doubt that Yee was that clever. The more likely explanation is that he believes in gun control and he’s a greedy hypocrite (and maybe not too bright either). The fact that gun-control policies are to his advantage is just a happy coincidence.
What’s interesting — and vexing — to me is that this sort of analysis is all the rage when it comes to conservatives and Republicans, and utterly incomprehensible to most journalists when it comes to liberals and Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »